Spring has sprung!

I'm tutoring 2nd grade Miranda. We write and made bread.  She was fascinated with the concept of it being alive.  It rose, we fed it, based it and ate! Yummy yeast bread.  Not as good as the hot cross buns I made for Easter, but o.k. For a demo.  I dyed Easter eggs for her too using natural dyes like beets, spinach and red onion skins.

Who knew beets would be brown? Pass dye or food coloring with vinegar makes the bright colors, blue's and purple.  I wrote her name on it with a Sharpie.  I understand the wax in a crayon works to leave an impression too. Like that hidden wax sand candle mold perhaps?
She is so bright and curious.  We fill a gap of need for one another.
I discovered POM, pomegranate juice in the store today.  It may be filled with antioxidants, but wow is it intense and concentrated.  I'd mix a bit in o.J. Or a cocktail. No more straight!  Noe blueberry Acai juice is o.k..

I squeezed some O.J. From my oranges for the past two days, by hand!  It's time to invest in my 3rd juicer!  It sure simplifies things.  Squeezing a glass at a time is one thing.  Even 2 or 4 oz takes a lot of oranges!  I was really enjoying the larger version of the cuties that have the zip peel.  Then one day, by mistake, I got a huge bag full at the farmers market, after I won a "soup fixings" contest/voucher for $20.00. Unfortunately, they were just navel.  I have one tree of them.

Once these oranges or lemons drop or are picked, they turn very quickly.  I tossed 3 buckets of "drops" I picked up off the deck  or under the trees.  I have loaded trees and another bucket of lemons and oranges.  My lemon tree wants to take over my best navel orange tree.  I'm constantly cutting it back.

My neighbor, Bobby, trimmed my huge 60' tall blue spruce.  Jack complains the tree spits on his car with it's pine cones.  This should take care of that.  He filled the street with branches.  I've been planting poppies, violas, pansies, wildflowers galore.  Most poppies are up and in bloom now.  I planted my first sunflower seeds and lots of sweet peas.  I love the scent of freesias in the spring and sweet peas.  Narcissus or paper whits are pretty but smell funky. Hyathacins are too, almost too strong.
 I miss the lilac and crocus out here. Tulips and daffodils don't winter over here unless refrigerated.  There are no crocus poking their heads up through the snow near me.  I don't miss the snow, although it does go down to 20 and frost warnings.  Once my jade froze in a hard freeze.  Those bushes are huge and flower in the spring.  By Feb. the fruit trees are in blossom and the flowering plum in the shades of white, pink, light and dark pink.  They are so pretty.  We have mustard now and lupine with the poppies but no dogwood or forcinthia.  We do have "roadies" though in all shades, purple, pink, white and scarlet everywhere, like oleander.